White Wave Chocolate Silk*....Oh man, I love that stuff. It's smooth, it's creamy, it's chocolaty, and it's good for me. Wow, you can't beat that. As a recent convert to vegetarianism, I was looking for ways to add more soy to my diet. I still drink cow's milk and I doubt that I will ever give up my cheese, but I decided to give soymilk a try.
I faced the full shelves in my local health food store's alternative milk aisle and felt completely confused. Where to start? Maybe rice milk would be better? Or almond milk--I love almonds. Should I pick up a carton of that? What are the kids going to say about milk that comes out of the cupboard? I wasn't sure how I felt about that part myself, so I decided to try something that came cold. That's when I saw the Chocolate Silk. I bought it and now I can't get enough of the stuff. My two-year-old Sarah follows me around the house with her sippy cup - "Choc-co-lock milk, Mom!" Oh yeah, we have definitely developed a taste for soy.
Then, disaster struck, the store was out of it. Yikes! What's a mommy to do?? I decided to try something else. I grabbed a box of Soy Dream off the shelf and headed home with it. I filled Sarah's cup and together we gave it a try. It is NOT the same.
That's when I approached Vegetarian Baby and Toddler with the idea of taste-test type article. I dislike wasting my money and I'm sure that the rest of you feel the same way. I came up with a survey and a lot of you were kind enough to complete it.
As the surveys came in, I tallied the results and here are the three most popular brands; White Wave Silk - a full 31% of you are drinking it, Rice Dream came in second, at 25%, and Edensoy came in third, at 11%. (I had not heard of Oat milk at this point, so I am sorry that I did not include that in my survey).
Kids and parents alike are drinking alternative milk, taste being the deciding factor in most cases. Parents rate nutritional content second, with an emphasis on a need to find an enriched brand. Some people like flavored, some prefer plain, but all want something that is good for their family. There was also some concern expressed for the need to find an organic product or something that had not been genetically altered. Price and convenience were pretty interchangeable.
Alternative milk is used for cooking as well as in the morning cereal. You are using it in your Mac and Cheese, to make ice cream, and to make your smoothies extra creamy. Now, thanks to all of your expert opinions, I'm thinking about branching out into rice milk. I wonder how Rice Dream would taste in my favorite Cream of Broccoli soup?
* One reader expressed a concern about White Wave's practice of producing their soymilk using the same equipment that was used to prepare cow's milk. I contacted the company and a representative issued the following statement, "Our tolerance for dairy content in Silk Soymilk is zero... We are committed to providing a product that is one hundred percent lactose-free." They explained that this is a common practice and that they take necessary precautions. The equipment is flushed with both water and air and they dispose of the first 75 gallons.
